The United States should consult internationally on its plans for Iraq given the potentially devastating consequences of a failure in its policies there, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said today.
Speaking at a NATO event in Brussels, Dr Kissinger warned against the emergence of "a Jihadist government" in Baghdad, saying it would threaten security far beyond Iraq and the Middle East.
"A catastrophic outcome in Iraq would affect directly or indirectly all members of the (NATO) alliance as well as countries from South East Asia to the northern hemisphere," Dr Kissinger told an audience of NATO officials and soldiers.
"That is why the next phase of Iraq policy in my view requires some degree of intensive consultation about its direction," he said. "Whether to do this in the NATO council or via some more restricted contact group goes beyond the scope of this speech."
Dr Kissinger said Washington should be ready after Iraqi polls due on December 15th to cooperate more in the "political reconstruction" of the country. NATO last year launched a training mission for top Iraqi officers, but opponents of the war, notably France and Germany, have resisted any wider role.
NATO members such as Britain and Italy have individually contributed to the US-led coalition in Iraq and the European Union is involved in training Iraqi judges and police.
Dr Kissinger, who signed the 1973 peace deal that led to the final pull-out of U.S. troops from Vietnam, did not offer any timeframe for a US military exit from Iraq and was scathing about former U.S. officials critical of the running of the war.
The question of whether the war is undermining the fight against terrorism, as some argue, is irrelevant, he said. "I believe the people who are now managing this should be given the opportunities and assistance in dealing with it," he said.
Suzanne Patrick, who resigned as US defence undersecretary for industrial policy in July, said recently a "single-minded focus" on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was causing Washington to lose sight of key issues such as China and the wider Muslim world.